Events

Artist talk with Lina Iris Viktor
Black Exodus

Autograph ABP

Join us for a talk with conceptual artist Lina Iris Viktor about her multi-disciplinary practice, and her most recent abstract photo works from the series Black Exodus.

Working in a solely black and gold colour palette, the artist negotiates artistic and socio-political definitions of ‘blackness’, whilst exploring existing narratives surrounding race and the African diaspora. Viktor’s practice merges photography, performance and abstract painting, along with the ancient practice of gilding with 24-karat gold to create increasingly dark canvases embedded with ‘layers of light’ in the form of symbols and intricate patterns.

Following her talk, Renée Mussai, Senior Curator and Head of Architve & Research at Autograph ABP, will join the conversation. The evening will end with a Q&A with the audience.

Discussing her exhibition, Viktor explains: “Black Exodus explores the charged topic of race universally, lifting the veil of seemingly ‘colour-blind’ societies, and reinvestigating stereotypes surrounding ‘blackness’ … The exhibition repositions the colour as a ‘materia prima’ - the ultimate presence that is the source of all matter, all people and all life; it is the place from which gold and precious materials are mined, and in which stars and planets are born.”

About the artist

Lina Iris Viktor was raised in London to Liberian parents, currently living and working between New York and London. Working across performance, painting, installation and photography, Viktor unites materials and methods from both contemporary and ancient art forms. Her practice questions the nature of time and being and address themes such as immortality and mortality, microcosm and macrocosm, and the socio-political and historical preconceptions surrounding “blackness” and its universal implications.